China’s government says it will end quarantine requirements for international travelers beginning next month, in another major shift away from its long-running “zero-COVID” policy. Beginning on January 8, arrivals at Chinese ports will be required only to show a negative COVID test result obtained within 48 hours of departure. The relaxed guidelines come after China’s top health authority estimated that tens of millions of people are becoming infected with coronavirus each day, making China’s current outbreak by far the worst in the world. This is an ER nurse at Peking University People’s Hospital.

Nurse: “All the patients who come here have oxygen levels at only 50%, 60%, 70% or so, so we feel a lot of pressure when it comes to severe cases. Our medical staff fell ill, one after another, and many colleagues are still working despite being sick.”